Research Trends and Challenges in Smart Grids

Until the last decade, it was the least smart domain and the source of most of power outages and disturbances, due to the lack of monitoring and control capabilities. Smart grid transition is starting right from this domain, with a large deployment of smart systems, coupled with two-way communication links.

• Energy management: Monitoring and controlling energy efficiency and demand

• Aggregation: Aggregating different customers and producers and efficiently managing the system as a whole, enabling new paradigms such as virtual

Introductory Chapter: Open Problems and Enabling Methodologies for Smart Grids

Customer domain is what defines the goal of a smart grid. This domain can be divided into three subdomains, each of which collects different customers with similar behaviors and energy needs: industrial, residential, and commercial. It is

With the introduction of distributed energy sources, the customer is evolving to a prosumer, i.e., it both produces and consumes energy, and it has an active role in

Most of energy efficiency policies are addressed to this domain, and automation

Electrical vehicles are expecting to take an important place in vehicle market, due to the increasing focus on sustainability, energy supply security, and climate change. They have the potential to serve electric grid as dynamical energy storages. Since they are parked most of the time, they can remain connected to the grid [10]. Vehicle to grid is a concept that enables electrical vehicles to interact with power systems, in order to provide a series of functions to support the grid, such as peak power shaving, spinning reserve, voltage, and frequency regulation. Such opportunities are provided by electric vehicles through charging and discharging of their

Their integration into power grids has to be carefully evaluated in order to avoid

One of the most promising strategies for the integration of vehicle-to-grid tech-

microgrid concepts, in such a way that energy flows are optimally controlled, taking into account power system's constraints, thus reducing eventual stress on the grid.

A novel concept, potentially introducing further flexibility into power systems,

An energy hub is a unit where multiple energy carriers, such as natural gas and electric energy, can be converted, conditioned, and stored. A typical example of converter is the CHP generator that produces both electric and thermal energy,

The main advantages of energy hubs are the increased reliability of supply and higher flexibility. Such concept would add another choice to the participants to demand response, maintaining the same absorbed power but switching the primary energy source from electrical energy coming from the grid to another carrier, such as natural gas. In that case the customer would get the benefits of the demand response incentives without renouncing the part of the absorbed power.

nology is the aggregation of electrical vehicles to the virtual power plant or

Key and innovative concepts for the customers of the future are demand

response, described earlier, vehicle to grid (V2G) and energy hubs.

of customers

DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.86496

power plants

2.7 Customer domain

power systems.

2.7.1 Vehicle to grid

battery packs.

2.7.2 Energy hubs

7

is that of energy hubs.

taking natural gas as input [11].

electrically connected to the distribution domain.

is playing a big role in reshaping it.

technical problems in distribution systems.

An evolving concept related to distributed generation, smart monitoring, and controls are microgrids.
